It’s hard not to get excited from the very first moments of Iowa guitarist Evan Miller’s latest album because it suggests some kind of Midwestern spirituality, a kind of fingerpickin countrified zen. Suit of Flowers is an acoustic raga that plays out for over seven minutes alongside some enlightened peaceful vocal drones. They’re worlds that rarely meet, a kind’ve east meets very west, and this juxtaposition adds an additional layer of exoticism to an album that works on long hypnotic structures, and mesmirising webs of acoustic guitar. Whilst the remainder of the pieces are mostly solo unaccompanied guitar, you can’t shake the transcendent feel, like Suit of Flowers was placed at the beginning to explicitly send us in this direction and the rest of the pieces manage to keep us there in a much subtler fashion. I can hear links to Jim O’Rourke’s Bad Timing, particularly on The Twigs, and there’s a definite affinity with the finger picking genius of John Fahey, though Miller’s playing is incredibly distinctive and it’s a really unfair to use outside influences to describe his music. He uses delay and loops, though his playing has a rare kind of subtle grace best exhibited on the ten minute Honey Loop. In keeping with its stripped down nature it’s not a surprise to learn that this album was originally recorded on 4-track and released as a handmade tour album. It’s probably one of the most centred albums I’ve ever heard, there’s a peacefulness at its core, a relaxed timelessness that you could never hope to achieve in a studio. Then out comes another hint, a cover of I Will Turn Your Money Green from country blues legend Furry Lewis complete with vocals and the zen vocal drones which return for an expansive rock out with (gasp) electric guitars. It’s at this point you begin to realise that Miller defies easy categorisation, rather he opens up a world within his finger picking, with his acoustic plucking and as he carries you along bewitched, maybe even hypnotised and you realise that all you need to do is allow yourself to fall in, because ultimately transcendence awaits.
Bob Baker Fish
